The MASE (Monthly Alzheimer’s Support Evening) Groups are delighted to have been awarded funds from the National Lottery Community Fund to help secure the future of their Groups.
This donation will help us to support our Carers and their cared-for with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or any form of Dementia.
If you had a bird’s eye view of a MASE meeting, you would observe a sea of happy, laughing and chatting people. You would never imagine that together they all have an immense sadness they share.
Everyone attending these meetings, which are held in four different venues each month, are what we call ‘silent sufferers’ of the most dreadful disease – Dementia/Alzheimer’s. These are the people who care for someone they have loved for almost a lifetime and are now suffering with either or both Dementia or Alzheimer’s. The MASE Groups are run totally by volunteers, many of who have lost a loved-one to Dementia. We have 35 Volunteers who help at each group. Who better than someone who has walked the pathway of dementia and who can offer tips and tricks to others. Carers know they are in a safe environment at the MASE Groups; there is also a wealth of information for them to take home. The evenings are very informal, with refreshments available during the evening, and home-made cake and biscuits. There is also entertainment and not a group goes by without people getting up to have a dance.
St John’s Ambulance/First Responders are at each event just in case anyone is taken ill during the evening.
The money donated by the National Lottery Community Fund will most definitely help to take pressure off the continual fundraising Trustees have to go through during the year to ensure the MASE Groups can continue.
Trustees are very grateful to the Community Fund for having the confidence in the service we provide for our Carers and their cared-for, and which we will hope to do for many years to come. The MASE Groups have been running now for 14 years.
August 2023
